This invention relates to the provision of physical therapy in general, and more particularly to the provision of physical therapy using patient-specific videotapes.
Physical therapy typically requires that a patient undertake a prescribed series of repetitive exercises so as to strengthen or otherwise treat a portion of that patient""s body. These prescribed exercises are patient-specific, in the sense that they must take into account the general health of the patient, the specific therapy to be achieved, etc. Since the patient typically performs at least some of the exercises out of view of the therapist, it is common for the therapist to provide the patient with a set of written guidelines to be followed when carrying out the prescribed exercise regimen. Among other things, this set of written guidelines may include paper drawings of the exercises which are to be performed by the patient.
Unfortunately, it can be very difficult for the physical therapist to provide the patient with all of the desired instructions via the aforementioned written guidelines, even where these guidelines include paper drawings.
For one thing, it can be prohibitively time-consuming for the physical therapist to provide each individual patient with their own unique set of written instructions, where those instructions are perfectly tailored to the specific physical therapy regimen to be undertaken by that patient.
For another thing, in many cases it can be very difficult for the therapist to provide the patient with a set of written instructions which will provide all of the desired information to the patient. This may be due to the inherent difficulty of illustrating dynamic actions using static drawings, and/or due to patient miscomprehension of written instructions, etc.
In addition to the foregoing, many patients tend to find their prescribed exercises extremely boring, due to the highly repetitive nature of these exercises. As a result, some patients unilaterally shorten their exercise regimen, or they may even skip it altogether. This can significantly undermine the effectiveness of the physical therapy prescribed for that patient.
As a result, one object of the present invention is to provide a novel system for providing patient-specific physical therapy to a patient.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel method for providing patient-specific physical therapy to a patient.
And another object of the present invention is to provide a novel interactive touchscreen workstation for generating patient-specific physical therapy videotapes.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide novel, xe2x80x9cwatch-and-doxe2x80x9d patient-specific physical therapy videotapes for use by a patient when carrying out a regimen of physical therapy exercises.
And another object of the present invention is to provide apparatus which can be used to prepare xe2x80x9cwatch-and-doxe2x80x9d videotapes.
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved by the provision and use of a novel interactive touchscreen workstation which is adapted to generate patient-specific physical therapy videotapes. The workstation generally includes an appropriately programmed, digital central processing unit; first storage means for storing digital video exercise data; second storage means for storing digital audio exercise data; third storage means for storing digital patient data; fourth storage means for storing digital audio music data; user interface controls for directing the operation of the central processing unit so as to (i) generate a sequence of digital video frames from the digital video exercise data contained in the first storage means, with that sequence corresponding to a particular physical therapy regimen prescribed for that patient, and (ii) generate a digital audio track from the digital audio exercise data contained in the second storage means, and/or the digital audio music data contained in the fourth storage means, with the digital audio track generated by the central processing unit corresponding to the sequence of digital video frames generated by the central processing unit; and output means for recording the sequence of digital video frames generated by the central processing unit, and the digital audio track generated by the central processing unit, on a standard videotape. The videotape can thereafter be used by a patient to conduct xe2x80x9cwatch-and-doxe2x80x9d physical therapy, i.e., by playing back the videotape while simultaneously carrying out the regimen of physical therapy exercises specified in, and illustrated by, that same videotape.
In another form of the invention, an interactive touchscreen workstation is provided for generating xe2x80x9cwatch and doxe2x80x9d videotapes, the workstation comprising a programmed, digital central processor; first storage means for storing digital video data; second storage means for storing digital audio data; user interface controls for directing the operation of the central processor so as to (i) generate a sequence of digital video frames from the data contained in the first storage means, in a sequence corresponding to a particular physical activity which is to be depicted in the xe2x80x9cwatch-and-doxe2x80x9d videotape, and (ii) generate a digital audio track from the digital audio data contained in the second storage means in synchronized relation to the sequence of digital video frames generated by the central processing unit; and output means for synchronously recording the sequence of digital video frames generated by the central processing unit, and the digital audio track generated by the central processing unit, on a standard videotape.